Charnwood Museum in Loughborough

If you are local to the Charnwood area in Leicestershire, a great place to visit with children is Charnwood Museum. Oscar loves it there. There is easy access with the aid of a ramp if needed. The museum is open Wednesdays – Saturdays 10am-4pm and Sundays 1pm-4pm. Admission is free. There is a great cafe, offering cheese and ham toasties which Oscar loves and packets of custard creams. There are accessible toilets near the cafe too. The nearest parking is available on Granby Street, either on the road or the car park with access to the playground in Queen’s Park.

Just inside the entrance there is a role-play area which Oscar loves. He enjoys making his grandparents coffee in the play kitchen. Every so often there is a special exhibition and in January 2022, the popular book ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr came to life at the museum.

There are also many interactive exhibits throughout the museum and as Oscar is interested in anything electrical, he likes to put on the headphones to listen to the audio exhibits. In the middle of the museum there is a fossil of a plesiosaur: a Jurassic marine reptile. It is called the Barrow Kipper because it was found in Barrow upon Soar in Leicestershire. It is under glass so visitors can walk over it.

On a sunny day, we go to the playground near the museum. There are tunnel slides which almost gave me a heat attack the first time Oscar climbed the steps! I can trust him a bit more now.

New Walk Museum

The original of the Barrow Kipper is in the New Walk Museum in the centre of Leicester. The museum is free and is open Mondays – Fridays 11am-4.30pm and Saturdays and Sundays 11am-5pm. There is a large dinosaur gallery with virtual reality screens. There are also exhibitions about the animal world with tunnels that children can crawl through, an awesome Egyptian gallery, a large art gallery and specialist exhibitions.

Parking is available at the top of New Walk in Granville Road car park. It’s about a 15 minute walk down to the museum.

I’d definitely recommend both of these museums if you are local to this area due to the wide range of exhibits, family friendly activities and the all-important cafe when the kids and adults need a refresh.